The Yellow -hilled Cuckoo. 233 



to parasitism ; and, what is more natural in such cir- 

 cumstances and with such a predisposition, that amid 

 favourable surroundings they should become more 

 and more parasitic. We should regard that as a 

 most natural and logical inference from the facts we 

 have before us ; and if Professor Alfred Newton 

 maintains the opposite, we have simply to say that 

 we out and out disagree with him, and that his bold 

 ignoring of the facts will in the end not benefit him 

 any more than it would anyone else. 



And it is unquestionable that, under civilization 

 and man's improvements, the numbers of cuckoos in 

 America are extending as their range is increasing. 



The yellow - billed cuckoo has a very extensive 

 range in summer ; breeding from the Gulf coast 

 north to the Dominion of Canada, New Brunswick, 

 and Minnesota, and from the West Indies, where it 

 is known as the " Maybird," and through Eastern 

 Mexico to Costa Rica. Some even winter in Southern 

 Florida. ... Of late years it has made its appear- 

 ance even in the City of Milwaukee, where apple 

 orchards occur. Though timid and shy, it becomes 

 very confident and conspicuous in gardens and in 

 hedgerows, where it feels safe and is convinced that 

 man is its friend and not its enemy. The number of 

 the eggs vary from three to six, but sets of three are 

 most common. It now and then at least practises 

 the vice, which disgraces so many of its relatives, and 

 lays its eggs in the nests of other birds. The egg 

 has been found in the nests of the wood-thrush, 

 robin, catbird, cedarbird, cardinal, mourning dove, 

 etc., etc. -'' 



* Henry Nehrling's Our Native Birds (Milwaukee). 1896. 



